A Report was lately read at the French Academy of Medicine referring to an operation which was successfully conducted by the help of a magnet. A patient who was by profession a sword-swallower at fairs, had, while at a restaurant, amused some companions by hiding a steel fork in his throat. By an accident, the fork reached to a lower point than the experimenter had reckoned for, and a surgical operation became imperative. By means of a strong magnet, the fork was moved to a position, where a simple incision soon relieved the sufferer of this unwelcome intruder.
The divers employed on the wreck of the ill-fated Oregon have almost finished their labours. Six men have been at work upon the wreck, each man remaining under water for from half an hour to one hour at a time. The cargo of the vessel chiefly consisted of bales of cotton; and the divers were furnished with hooks, like workmen employed in the same business on dry land, with which they could grasp and handle the bales. These were attached to steam pulleys, and hauled on board the wrecking vessel. To get at the mail-room, the side of the submerged vessel had to be blown in with dynamite, but much of the mail-matter was spoilt by the water before this was done. The divers report that the vessel is fast breaking up; her bow has fallen over into the sand, and she is broken in two between the mainmast and the foremast, although some of her spars are still visible above water.
Dr H. J. Fox announces in the St Louis Medical Journal that creosote is almost a certain cure for erysipelas, for he has treated some hundreds of cases with only one fatal result. The affected parts are kept constantly covered with cloths soaked in a solution of creosote in water—six to twenty drops of creosote to one ounce of water; or a poultice may be formed by stirring ground elm into the solution so as to make a paste.
At the Birmingham Art Gallery, a new method of illuminating the pictures is being tried. In the centre of the room is a suspended ring of ninety-six Swan incandescent lamps, each of twenty candle-power. Within this ring is a series of silvered glass reflectors bent to such a curve as will insure the pictures being well illuminated without any reflection from their surfaces. The arrangement has been devised by Messrs Chamberlain and Hookham.
A Report has recently been published by Mr Verbeck, who was deputed to inquire into the origin and character of the terrible volcanic outburst at Krakatoa, in the Straits of Sunda, two years ago. He calculates that the amount of matter ejected from the volcano was equal to a mass measuring at least ten cubic miles, and that the velocity with which this matter was thrown into the atmosphere was greater than the projecting power of the biggest of big guns. He considers that the ejected matter must have reached a height of thirty miles; that is, about six times the height of the highest mountain in the world. The explosions were heard over a fourteenth part of the earth’s surface; and an atmospheric wave travelled from the scene of disturbance, and spread itself over the surface of the globe in thirty-six hours.
We are glad to see that a Society for the Protection of Birds has been instituted in New York. It seems to be akin to the Plumage League recently incorporated in our own country, while its aims are more comprehensive. Its chief object is to protect birds not used for food from destruction for mercantile purposes, and it will also endeavour to secure and publish information relative to the present enormous destruction of birds for the purposes of dress, decoration, and general adaptation to fancy articles. It will also point out in its teachings the bad results which must in time accrue to agriculture from the wanton destruction of birds which prey upon insect life. The robbing of birds’ nests and the destruction of eggs will also be discouraged by the Society.
Among the papyri which have recently been brought to Vienna from El Fayoum was one which, according to those who have deciphered it, mentioned the existence of a city in Lower Egypt which seems to have completely vanished. The document in question is a papyrus four feet long by one foot wide. It contains a marriage contract between one Theon and his bride Maria, with the signature of witnesses and a notary. All these people are described as belonging to the city of Justianopolis. No mention of this place can be found among any lists of places which exist. The papyrus is supposed to date from the sixth century.
The dispute as to the permanence or non-permanence of water-colour drawings has received a fresh contribution from the pen of Mr E. A. Goodall, whose father engraved a certain drawing of Turner’s which is now in the national collection. It had been pointed out, as a proof of the fugitive nature of the pigments which the great painter employed, that many details which appear in the engraving in question are not now visible in the original drawing. Mr Goodall, however, says that these details never were visible in the painting, it being the custom of Turner, when proofs were submitted to him for approval, to touch up those proofs and to introduce new effects—clouds, figures, &c., which were not in the original work.
Mr W. A. Gibbs, whose name in connection with hay-drying apparatus will be remembered, has lately turned his attention to a machine for ‘withering’ tea after the leaves have been curled and twisted in the rolling-mill. This is brought about by submitting the damp leaves to a current of dry air, which speedily desiccates the mass. The machine consists of a revolving fan in an iron casing mounted on a pair of wheels, with a small coke-fire in a box in front of it. There is a hand-wheel to drive the fan, and handles attached to the casing, so that the contrivance can readily be moved from place to place. There is an inlet and outlet for the air, the latter passing over the fire. In front of the inlet there is a cage, in which are placed lumps of chloride of calcium, a salt which has the property of absorbing all moisture within its reach, and which when saturated can easily be restored to its former state by heating. It can thus be used over and over again, so that first cost is the only expense. By this apparatus a dry air can be delivered without the employment of any excessive heat, and such conditions give the best results in the desiccation of tea. Mr Gibbs has also devised a machine for the rapid drying of fibrous materials, which will doubtless be found valuable in many branches of trade and manufacture.